In general, reconstructing of depressions or deficiencies in a rigid framework for reconstructive treatment of a patient can typically require insertion of a firm filling. Such filling can itself use autogenous living materials in form of grafts including bone, fascia, cartilage, dermis and fat, for example. Moreover, throughout history of cosmetic treatments, other non-living materials of humans such as boiled bone, ivory, preserved cartilage, gutta-percha, and preserved fascia, have also been employed as part of such filling. Typically from such list, cartilage has generally emerged as a preferred material that constitutes such filling, in modern cosmetology fields.
Commonly, the cartilage can be introduced as a carved block or mass of sliced or diced particles. Typically the term diced may refer to small segments that are cut in form of a flat shaving. For example, this can include cube segments without having sharp edges such as cartilage being manually chopped into multi-faceted particles, generally about 1 to 3 mm in diameter.
To this end, cartilage grafting has been used extensively to correct both functional and aesthetic aspects of nasal frameworks in patients, via replacing layered septal grafts, stacked conchal grafts, and carved costal cartilage grafts, for example. Stated differently, both reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries—which are among the most frequently performed procedures especially in craniofacial surgeries today—routinely employ cartilage grafts.
As such, cartilage grafting can be performed in plate or diced forms, for example. Advantageously, diced grafting may require relatively smaller incisions hence reducing patient-recovery-time; which remains in contrast to plate grafting that requires substantially larger incisions. Stated differently, when a full-thickness cartilage or solid graft is employed instead of diced grafting, a splinting the chest wall of a patient can be required, which in turn can potentially cause atelectasis and other pulmonary complications for the patient—hence mandating rigorous medical attention during the immediate postoperative period.
On the other hand, employing a substantially small incision(s) and avoiding full-thickness harvest can typically mitigate such adverse effects. To this end, diced cartilage grafts are typically deemed a valuable addition is reconstructive and cosmetic surgeries.
Moreover, such diced cartilage grafts are considered highly flexible, when correcting aesthetic & functional aspects of patients. For example, their use can simplify various challenges in all of rhinoplasty—dorsal augmentation—whereby complications have remained relatively manageable and their correction simple to administer.
Notwithstanding, the whole process of manually dicing cartilage as in conventional systems, is typically deemed time consuming—which in itself can further prolong operation procedures. For example, lack of agility in conventional procedures of cartilage dicing can further prolong anesthesia and its associated costs for the patients.